Suicide bombers attack Yemeni military camp

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Story highlights

Two are killed and eight wounded in the suicide attack, an official says

The blast resembles an al Qaeda attack, a military commission spokesman says

Bombers detonate explosives at the front gate of the military camp, the ministry says

Suicide bombers targeted a Yemeni military camp southeast of the capital Saturday, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding eight others, a top Republican Guard official said.

The bombers struck a camp for the guard, an elite unit of the nation's army, the Defense Ministry said.

Ministry officials accused al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula of being behind the attack, in which two bombers in a pickup truck detonated explosives at the front gate of the camp in al-Baitha province, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) southeast of the capital, Sanaa.

Ali Obaid, a spokesman for the military commission, Yemen's highest military authority, said the attack bore the hallmark of al Qaeda.

"The Saturday attack was a direct threat to all the military and security factions in the country," Obaid said.

The attack followed a suicide bombing a week earlier that targeted the presidential palace, killing 21 members of the Republican Guard and injuring nine, according to the Ministry of Interior. The attack occurred an hour after Abdu Hadi was sworn in as Yemen's president.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for that attack, identifying the suicide bomber as Abu Mihjan al-Sayari.

Experts have warned that al Qaeda is seeking to expand its territory, taking advantage of the absence of security forces in a number of rural areas.